Chapter 1: The last of our kind

This story, like all good ones, begins in a hole. Unfortunately this is not a pleasant hole. This hole is dark and dirty, lit only by a single lantern hung from the soil ceiling. It was easily large enough to accommodate a few ponies. In one corner the hole continued into a small cave. At the end of this cave, invisible due to the lack of light, rested three sets of saddle bags packed to the brim. In this hole, three ponies stood in a circle, the light barely touching their faces. These however were not happy faces but faces of grief and sorrow.

“How many of us are left?” asked a silver coated pegasus. He had a messy blue mane that stood up and a similarly colored tail brushed into three long spikes. His cutie mark depicted a small flame the same color as his mane and tail. His wings were also a bit larger than that of a normal pegasus. When folded to his sides they almost completely covered his cutie mark and stretched out a bit past it.

“With the recent attack on Avalonia,” a more feminine voice chimed in, there are 52 known psions.” A yellow mare with a short tannish mane brushed to one side stepped out into the light as she spoke. She was a little shorter than the other two and wore a blue jumpsuit that covered most of her slender body, including her cutie mark.

“Only 52?!” shouted the pegasus as he stomped forward.

“Calm down Hotshot.” Another earth pony, one who was easily larger than the other two, stepped forward into the pegasus’ way. He had a midnight blue coat with an even darker mane and a cutie mark of a rather heavy looking hammer. One of his most distinguishing features is the missing tip of his right ear.

“Ombra’s right,” The yellow mare added, “there is nothing that we could have done”.

“Yeah but, there were hundreds before!” Hotshot protested.

“Yes,” Thundra argued, “but Avalonia was our largest stronghold.”

Hotshot simply stared at the floor and let the thoughts sink in. How could something like this happen? Is 52 even enough to keep their kind going? Now what will happen to him and his friends? Hotshot’s train of thought was broken when Ombra spoke again. “We should head for Psyren, that’s our last stronghold.” He and Thundra both turned to walk deeper into the cave, but Hotshot did not move. It was a moment before the mare noticed this and addressed him. “Hotshot, are you coming?” Ombra stopped as well and spun around.

“Why?” Hotshot responded.

“Why what?”

“Why should we even try? Sure we can go to Psyren but it’s only a matter of time before a group of unicorns find that stronghold and destroy it too, along with all of us. Might as well just hoof ourselves over to the magi now.”

Ombra stepped forward and stood tall. “So you’re ready to just lie down and die?” he challenged.

Hotshot turned his head to look Ombra in the eye before yelling “why not? That seems to be what everypony else is doing!” He slammed his hoof into the floor and cracked the stone beneath him. “Sure Avalonia couldn’t have fought the war but they were more than capable of defending themselves!” Thundra slowly approached the angered pegasus and laid a hoof on his shoulder.

“It may seem that all hope is lost… but you have to remember that as long as one of us exists then there is still a chance. It’s our job to carry and pass on the art that is psi.”

“I didn’t ask for any of this.” Hotshot said.

“Neither did I.” Thundra replied, “But it’s still our job, nonetheless. So, are you coming or do I have to drag you out?” Hotshot gave a weak smile and nodded. “Good, now why don’t you get us out of this hole?” Hotshot gave a loud sigh and repositioned himself. Thundra took a step back as the pegasus closed his eyes and concentrated.

The outside world was little more than a barren wasteland. The land was mostly flat and devoid of life except for a few shrubs and small trees that grew here and there. Dust storms rolled across the ground and mountains could be seen in the far distance. It was in the middle of this dessert the three psions hid. With a loud burst, a huge mound of dirt shot up into the air as two earth ponies and a pegasus came out of the ground. “Do you have to be so loud?” Thundra asked.

“It’s the one thing that I get to do!” Hotshot smirked. “Can’t you at least let me have fun doing it?” Hotshot ignored her glares as he took in the vast empty landscape. “What planet are we on again?”

“Earth” Ombra said matter of factly, “home of the humans and one of the last known planets to be unaffected by the war, which is why we can’t stay.”

“Why not? The humans have pretty good technology, they could defend themselves” said Hotshot with a small smile. Thundra gave him a look as though she was expecting him to say something like ‘just kidding’ or ‘joking’. He knew this was what she wanted so he just stayed silent.

“You know that’s not true” Thundra started. “Humans rely on guns to win their wars and you know that does not work against us.”

Hotshot rolled his eyes at her while remembering just how easy it is to stop a bullet or deflect a grenade with blast. The problem with all ranged weapons like guns and bows is that the moment the bullet or arrow leaves the weapon, the user no longer has control over it and powerful beings such as a unicorn can easily take advantage of this. This is why whenever they fought, they had to either rely on their powers or a close ranged weapons like swords. Of course there are some exceptions to this in the form of enriched weapons but they are rare and Hotshot has never had the pleasure of using one.

The group of ponies made their way to a hill that looked like it had recently been dug up and replaced. “Quietly this time” Thundra warned him. With a loud sigh the pegasus closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon the pile of dirt was slowly lifted out of the ground and placed over to the side revealing a rusted ship. It was not a very big ship, about the size of a small house. The three ponies quickly got to work cleaning out all of the dirt that was not lifted away. It was not long before all of the engines, joints, and anything else that needed to be cleaned was free of soil and the ponies were on their way off of the planet.

Hotshot hated how boring space travel was. They had only been traveling for a few hours and he was already out of things to do. Being the youngest of the group he was often sent to be a lookout while Ombra and Thundra handled all of the piloting. Finding an enemy ship and starting a space battle was a rare occurrence, it had only happened once before in his life and at the time he had been too young to understand what was happening. Also any debris that could threaten the ship usually showed up on the monitor before he saw it. Sure it was nice to see the natural beauty that was the cosmos but when you have been traveling through it for your entire life, it eventually loses all of its awe inspiring greatness. After what seemed like hours of Hotshot bouncing a ball across the room, Thundra suggested that he go practice his psi, or perhaps read a book to pass the time. He didn’t hate books, it’s just that usually there was something better to do. Unfortunately for him right now there was nothing better to do. Being too lazy to care Hotshot grabbed the first book he could reach, not paying any attention to the title, opened it up to the first page and began to read.

The fundamentals of psi

Chapter 1: What is psi?

Psi is the ability to use one’s mind to influence themselves, others, and even the physical world around them. Psi comes from the imagination so in order to use a psionic skill, called psych’s, the user must be able to create an image in their mind then project that image to the outside would.

Not finding this part of the book particularly interesting, Hotshot skipped ahead a few pages and continued. Psi comes in three families, blast, trance, and enhance. Blast is the ability to influence the outside world with the power of your mind. Telekinesis, the ability to move physical objects without touching them is a good example of blast. Trance is the ability to influence the mind of another with your own mind. The telepathy psych is the result of trance. Enhance is the ability to use psi to influence oneself, namely making the body stronger or improving reaction times.

Hotshot closed the book with a loud thump then threw it aside while muttering “Nothing I didn’t already know.” Not wanting to get up from his spot to find another book he telekinetically lifted the next one on the shelf over to himself. He opened it to a random page and began to read.

What is magic? Magic is the ability to channel one’s aura, or ‘life energy’, into the outside world. In order to use magic one first needs to have an exceptionally strong heart and means of channeling the power, such as a wand or staff. In order to use a magic skill, primarily called spells, one must first focus their power. Then, by knowing what they want to do with this power, the user can release their energy and cast the spell. Magic comes in two schools: light and darkness. Light magic comes from positive emotions such as love and happiness, while dark magic comes from negative emotions such as anger and hate.

“Why do we even have this book?” Hotshot asked, holding it up in the air.

Ombra glanced at the title then said, “Knowing your enemy is the quickest way to victory.”

Hotshot sat the book down. “What victory?” he replied. “We haven’t won a real battle in more than a thousand years.”

“Would you stop with the ‘there’s no reason to live anymore’ act, it’s really starting to bum me out.” Thundra turned around to face the pegasus and continued. “And get your gear ready; we will be in Avalonia soon.

Hotshot jumped at the mention of the former base. “I thought that we were going to Psyren, not Avalonia.”

“We were” Ombra turned to face him. “But we got a message form Psyren asking us to do an SS run on our way.”

Hotshot nearly fell out of his chair. “But the attack was just yesterday! Shouldn't there be, I don’t know, magi still running around?”

“Which is why you need to go and prepare your gear!” Thundra barked. “It would be lucky if we didn’t get in a fight.” With a grumble Hotshot got off of the couch and slowly dragged himself to the locker room of the ship. He began checking a blue jumpsuit similar to Thundra’s. One of the greatest feet’s ever performed by a psion was finding out how to create magic resistant clothing. Unfortunately it was not discovered until after the great battle but even so it was not long before this technology was given to every psion they could find. The suits don’t completely protect the wearer from spell power, but they do a good job of resisting it. Hotshot often complained that Ombra never had to wear a suit; after all, they were tight, heavy, and uncomfortable. There were also a lot of bare spots that are not protected, such as the joints that were cut out to prevent movement impairment.

Ombra never wore one because of the fact that they prevent him from using his full strength in battle. Thundra never took hers off for fear of an unexpected attack. Even though Hotshot didn’t like wearing them Thundra was always able to convince him otherwise. Maybe she was just good with words or maybe she was using some trance psych that he did not know about. Whatever it was, it never worked on Ombra. Every day she would try to convince him to put on a uniform but Ombra always won out with his ‘I will somehow find a way to ignore you’ skill.

Avalonia was about a day away from where they were. This means that Hotshot had to find a way to entertain himself for the next few hours. Which is better than the week it would have took them to get to Psyren. He checked then double checked his gear. He then went back up to the cabin and continued to bounce a ball across the room. This continued until Thundra stole his ball away and accused him of ‘deliberately trying to annoy her’. He then went on to the top of the ship with a book he didn’t really care for and played lookout for a while. Nothing ever happened on this ship. That’s why there was really no use for a lookout. He went to the lower training area of the ship and smacked around a few dummies for a while. Hotshot’s team didn’t get into fights often but when they did it was always for their lives. He had to keep up his strength knowing that a fight awaited him in Avalonia. Hotshot’s conduct could only be described as unproductive until he decided to sleep before they got to their destination.

The team landed near the city of Avalonia. They decided to not bury the ship so if they are attacked then it would be easy to make a quick escape. The place where they landed was a vast desert, not too different from the one they had just left. Some of the differences between the two were that all the dirt was replaced with sand and it was devoid of any life whatsoever. Even though this planet was perfectly capable of supporting life, none had ever begun here. This is what made it a perfect place to hide a base. Because of the fact that different mage controlled worlds put a high bounty out for the capture of any psions, it was very hard for them to find any help. If the base had been built in a colonized world then it would have been much harder to hide. It is not only magi that the psi users had to hide from, it was everyone and everything. The only ponies Hotshot could trust were Ombra and Thundra.

After a quick scan of the area to make sure that there were no potential threats the company set out to the north, to where the city was located. It was not long before the three arrived at Avalonia, or, what was left of it. They had expected to find a ruined underground city, what they had not expected was the giant crater that was where the city should be. The crater was huge, at least several miles in diameter. The ponies could do nothing but stare in shock. As they took in what was left of the city the three could only think of why they had to win this war. Of why they fought. As long as there are beings with this kind of destructive power roaming the cosmos no one was safe. Especially since this power was tied to unpredictable emotions. It is too easy to anger a mage and cause them to do something like this. Psions are logical, they won’t use the full extent of their powers unless they absolutely need to.

While the crater was impossibly wide, it was not very deep. A pile of rubble made from dirt and the remains of the base sat only a few meters below the edge. It was only after Thundra suggested that the sooner they get started the sooner they could leave that Ombra and Hotshot jumped into the ruble and began to dig.

All three of them were sure that there were no survivors whatsoever so they focused their efforts on searching for supplies instead. Unfortunately anything they found that might have been useful once was destroyed. This pattern of digging and not finding anything continued for longer than any of them had hoped and the team was beginning to grow tired.

Hours passed and still nothing. Even Thundra was beginning to lose hope, which is amazing because she is the one who is usually pushing the others to keep going. At least there are no attacks right? The moment Thundra thought this she regretted it because the phrase “surviving psions!” was heard throughout the waists. It came from a group of unicorns not far from the company.

The spell casters began to charge while firing bolts of magic toward the earth ponies and pegasus. Hotshot acted quickly and used telekinesis to pick up a large pile of debris and used it to block the bolts while the others gathered behind him. The unicorns slowed their charge but continued to fire bolts, trying to break through the shield. “Thundra!” Hotshot grunted through his teeth.

“I’m on it” the mare replied. She closed her eyes and held her breath for a moment. Soon Hotshot could no longer feel the bombardment of spell power on his makeshift shield. “There they go!” one of the unicorns yelled as they continued to fire in the other direction, not hitting anything. Ombra looked at Hotshot and nodded. With that the pegasus dropped the rubble, only for Ombra to take it up in his own blast, and took to the skies.

Once he was high enough to get a good look at the enemy, who were busy chasing down some ponies that weren’t really there, Hotshot closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It took a few moments but eventually a ring of fire appeared around the speeding unicorns. They stopped for a moment to examine the flames. Before they knew what was happening the magi were completely engulfed in a pillar of fire. Unfortunately for Hotshot and the others this acted as a beacon for all of the other unicorns in the area. Soon he was occupied by doing flips and rolls to avoid all of the magical bolts flung his way. “Hotshot” came Thundra’s voice inside his head. ”Can you ignite them?”

“There are too many, I can’t focus”

“Then try throwing fireballs!” Hotshot quickly summoned a fireball then threw it in the general direction of one of the bolts only to have it thrown back at him. Thundra saw this and responded by shooting her own bolts of electricity at the unicorns. Her attack couldn’t really hurt them but it is able to stun the attackers long enough for Hotshot to regroup with the others. It is only then that the company realized that they are surrounded.

“Get ready to hold up a barrier” Hotshot telepathically told his allies. He then blew a shockwave through the defense of ponies. As the ponies fell an assault of spell bolts came at them from those who still stood, but both Thundra and Ombra were ready as they held up small pieces of debris to defend with.

“Let’s go!” one of the psions yelled to the others.

As they ran through the hole Hotshot had provided, one of the unicorns recovered and stood in their way while yelling “I am Avalon Centrifuge!” Ombra ran ahead of the group and with a single hit to the head he knocked out the unicorn.

“We can’t lead them to the ship!” Thundra thought, “They’ll destroy it!”

“Then what do we do?” Asked Hotshot.

“We have to fight them!” Ombra replied. The trio stopped running and turned to face their assailants. Once the unicorns caught up they took their battle stances and fired bolts more powerful than before.

“Use enhance to dodge. We can’t block these.” The psions began to move around the fire. Hotshot quickly took to the air to utilize the advantages that was his wings. As he flew up a sharp pain hit Hotshot’s side and his wings stopped moving. He began to fall and as he fell Hotshot tried to imagine how he could have been hit. The only possibility that he could think of was if the unicorn knew exactly where he was going to be ahead of time. Unfortunately that did not matter now. He landed with a hard thump that kicked up a small cloud of dust.

Hotshot tried to move but his body would not respond. He tried listening but he could not hear past the ringing in his ears. Hotshot thought that it must have been a paralyzing spell. The dust cleared and he saw the one thing that most of his kind would be terrified of, but he was strangely at peace with it. Standing right above him was a unicorn with his horn aglow.

“Any last words?” The unicorn asked. Hotshot was barely able to look in his direction, much less speak. “Very well.” The unicorn released his spell. Hotshot was going to let this hit and hopefully end it all, all of the pain and suffering and the burden that was placed upon his shoulders for simply being born that way, but his reflexes would not allow it. At the same time he sent out a pulse of blast energy and in the moments that followed there was a loud boom and a sharp pain then everything went blank.

Author's Note

There is a vague Hobbit reference in this chapter so see if you can find it!